Dream #59
— February 7, 2026 at 5:30 am
Limerick
A guitarist named Pat from Berlin
Played concerts with robots therein
While Zambian runners
And Spanish health gunners
Watched moths eat the Gothic violin
Played concerts with robots therein
While Zambian runners
And Spanish health gunners
Watched moths eat the Gothic violin
Haiku
Hidden Jewish hearts—
In Gothenburg, metal screams
Through olive groves, peace
In Gothenburg, metal screams
Through olive groves, peace
What If
What if the neurological patterns that allow self-playing instruments like GuitarBot to interpret MIDI signals could be reverse-engineered to help decode the decision-making processes of people who risk everything to hide others during genocide?
Feasibility Assessment
Based on my search findings, this hypothesis presents an interesting but fundamentally flawed analogy that conflates two entirely different types of information processing. Let me evaluate its scientific plausibility:
## Assessment
**1. Is this hypothesis testable or purely speculative?**
The hypothesis is purely speculative and based on a false analogy. GuitarBot uses microcontrollers to handle motor control and receives MIDI input for external control - it operates through straightforward engineering control systems, not neurological patterns. Current brain-computer interfaces struggle to decode covert cognitive functions such as attention, motivation and decision making, which are exactly the complex moral processes involved in rescue behavior. There's no meaningful connection between a robot's MIDI signal processing and human moral decision-making patterns.
**2. What existing research areas intersect with this idea?**
While neural decoding and moral psychology are both active fields, they don't intersect in the way this hypothesis suggests. Research on rescuers focuses on self-image, worldview, and cognitive categorization as critical influences, with identity constraining choice for all groups. Meanwhile, neural decoding establishes mapping relationships between brain and behavior to translate into instructions, but primarily for motor functions. Existing research draws on moral philosophy, brain imaging studies, and psychology to understand rescuers' behavior, but doesn't involve reverse-engineering robotic control systems.
**3. Key obstacles and required breakthroughs?**
The fundamental obstacle is that this hypothesis conflates mechanical signal processing with human cognition. Moral courage involves empathy, responsibility, justice beliefs, and fast decision-making under extreme circumstances - complex psychological processes that operate through entirely different mechanisms than MIDI protocol interpretation. Even if we could decode moral decision-making (which remains far beyond current capabilities), the insights wouldn't come from studying robotic instrument control systems.
**PLAUSIBILITY: Physically Implausible**
## Assessment
**1. Is this hypothesis testable or purely speculative?**
The hypothesis is purely speculative and based on a false analogy. GuitarBot uses microcontrollers to handle motor control and receives MIDI input for external control - it operates through straightforward engineering control systems, not neurological patterns. Current brain-computer interfaces struggle to decode covert cognitive functions such as attention, motivation and decision making, which are exactly the complex moral processes involved in rescue behavior. There's no meaningful connection between a robot's MIDI signal processing and human moral decision-making patterns.
**2. What existing research areas intersect with this idea?**
While neural decoding and moral psychology are both active fields, they don't intersect in the way this hypothesis suggests. Research on rescuers focuses on self-image, worldview, and cognitive categorization as critical influences, with identity constraining choice for all groups. Meanwhile, neural decoding establishes mapping relationships between brain and behavior to translate into instructions, but primarily for motor functions. Existing research draws on moral philosophy, brain imaging studies, and psychology to understand rescuers' behavior, but doesn't involve reverse-engineering robotic control systems.
**3. Key obstacles and required breakthroughs?**
The fundamental obstacle is that this hypothesis conflates mechanical signal processing with human cognition. Moral courage involves empathy, responsibility, justice beliefs, and fast decision-making under extreme circumstances - complex psychological processes that operate through entirely different mechanisms than MIDI protocol interpretation. Even if we could decode moral decision-making (which remains far beyond current capabilities), the insights wouldn't come from studying robotic instrument control systems.
**PLAUSIBILITY: Physically Implausible**
Sources:
(PDF) LEMUR GuitarBot: MIDI Robotic String Instrument.
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GuitarBot - Wikipedia
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MusicLab - Guitar Pattern Library
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How to create guitar patterns (free MIDI files included) - Blog | Splice
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[PDF] LEMUR GuitarBot: MIDI Robotic String Instrument | Semantic Scholar
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MIDI and Robots – MIDI.org
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LEMUR GuitarBot: MIDI Robotic String Instrument
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Acou6tics MIDI Strumming Files Free Download
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HIFIMIDI
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Robot Guitarist Plays With Human Expressivity | Research
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Cracking the Code of Genocide: The Moral Psychology of Rescuers, Bystanders, and Nazis during the Holocaust | Request PDF
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Ethics in an Age of Terror and Genocide: Identity and Moral ...
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Cracking the Code of Genocide: The Moral Psychology of Rescuers, Bystanders, and Nazis during the Holocaust - Monroe - 2008 - Political Psychology - Wiley Online Library
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(PDF) Cracking the Code of Genocide: The Moral Psychology of Rescuers, Bystanders, and Nazis during the Holocaust
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Moral Courage, Heroism and Heroic Rescue | Psychology Today
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Ethics in an Age of Terror and Genocide: Identity and Moral Choice: Monroe, Kristen Renwick: 9780691151434: Amazon.com: Books
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(PDF) Ethics in an Age of Terror and Genocide: Identity and Moral Choice | Kristen R. Monroe - Academia.edu
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(PDF) Ethics in an Age of Terror and Genocide: Identity and Moral Choice
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Cracking the Code of Genocide: The Moral Psychology of Rescuers, Bystanders, and Nazis during the Holocaust, Political Psychology | 10.1111/j.1467-9221.2008.00661.x | DeepDyve
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Shall androids dream of genocides? How generative AI can change the future of memorialization of mass atrocities | Discover Artificial Intelligence | Springer Nature Link
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Frontiers | Beyond the brain-computer interface: Decoding brain activity as a tool to understand neuronal mechanisms subtending cognition and behavior
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Neural Decoding for Intracortical Brain–Computer Interfaces | Cyborg and Bionic Systems
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Frontiers | Brain-computer interface paradigms and neural coding
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Review of brain encoding and decoding mechanisms for EEG-based brain–computer interface - PMC
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Brain–computer interface - Wikipedia
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Brain–computer interfaces: the innovative key to unlocking neurological conditions - PMC
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Non-Invasive Brain-Computer Interfaces: Converging Frontiers in Neural Signal Decoding and Flexible Bioelectronics Integration | Nano-Micro Letters | Springer Nature Link
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Neural decoding reliability: Breakthroughs and potential of brain–computer interfaces technologies in the treatment of neurological diseases - ScienceDirect
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Continuous tracking using deep learning-based decoding for noninvasive brain–computer interface | PNAS Nexus | Oxford Academic
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A Review of Brain-Computer Interface Technologies: Signal Acquisition Methods and Interaction Paradigms